Presidential insights - Randy Decksheimer

Posted by Richard Lemon on Mar 21, 2018

Randy Decksheimer yelled "Good Morning Harboursiders" which how he opened every meeting as President. Randy followed Bruce Tait and was President in 1998-99 and was followed by Susan Kurishima. The club was large at that point (120 members) and had a strong business focus. Randy felt the club was too large then and felt that around 100 was an optimum number. Some of the more memorable moments included:

hosting two exchange students that year

group exchange to Morioka where 14 members of the club travelled to Japan. Randy was required to make a speech in Japanese to a group while there and found out it was to approximately 500 prominent individuals from the city. He felt he did all right though as they laughed at his one joke. Harbourside had to "step up their game" when the Japanese contingent arrived and the Club took them golfing and organized a dinner at government house.

A major incident occurred when an active member Ardath Paxton Mann was participating in the Christmas Salvation Army drive. She broke one of the bells used to get people to put money in the buckets and from then on was called the "bell buster" in the club.

Randy's worst job was having to go to each Rotary Club and ask for money to pay off the deficit on the Air Show which was a major event that year. (Some one from the club yelled it was the first time he had heard an accountant admitting to losing money).

Finally, Randy was luck to win the Wine Auction that year. Quite a few bottles of great wine but unfortunately he couldn't persuade his wife to continue drinking the "plonk" they usually had after she tasted some of the win.